


What Homes Are Made Of

by Methoxyethane



Series: Home [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha Lance (Voltron), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Humor, Home Improvement, M/M, Omega Keith (Voltron), Pre-Canon, but super light
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 14:22:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18412436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: No, you didn’t get it. Keith was living in a SHACK in the DESERT! There was no way Lance’s conscience could let it just stand like this! If Keith couldn’t be moved, then Lance would just have to come to him.





	What Homes Are Made Of

He caught his smell first. 

Keith had been gone from the Garrison for months now, but Lance could still pick his scent out from a crowd of a thousand. One might accuse him of being obsessed with the omega, or maybe even some kind of stalker, but no. When it came to Keith, Lance just had a second sense. And that sense was smell, because it was so strong and so distinct he couldn’t ever mistake it for anyone else’s.

He had been in town at the time, a rare afternoon free after Garrison classes. He’d caught wind of the familiar spicy-sweet orange blossom and ginger smell in the back of a dollar store, where he’d been wasting time looking at knick-nacks his little niece might like and ended up unconsciously following it all the way to the counter.

That was how he’d caught sight of Keith Kogane, the man, the myth, the legend himself, buying dollar-store bean cans in bulk and generally looking as haggard and scraggly as any hobo Lance had ever seen in his life.

He looked like shit. His hair was a mess, he had bags under his eyes, even his skin looked pale and sallow. Lance had never seen Keith look like this before, and it was instantly worrying.

He knew that he and Keith had never been friends, had probably never even really liked each other in the first place, but… He couldn't just walk away and forget about this. Not knowing what to do or what to say, he followed Keith out of the store.

It had only been a few months since Keith had been kicked out of the Garrison, there was no reason for him to look this bad unless he was living out on the streets. 

Keith was walking quickly though, and boarded a hover bike soon to blast away into the streets. Lance hesitated, glanced at his own rented bike, and almost against his will wound up tracking Keith from his scent and following wherever he’d raced off to.

He ended up following him all the way into the desert. Like, WAY the fuck into the desert, where there was no one around for miles to hear you scream kind of desert. He finally pulled over at a little shack smack dab in the middle of nowhere, and Lance watched him scuttle inside with his groceries and gasoline canisters.

Lance parked his own bike. Waited, uncertain of what to do. But it kind of seemed like this might be where Keith was living, and Lance’s alpha instinct couldn’t let him walk away from what seemed like it might be a very bad situation, omega or not.

He got off his bike and knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Keith asked from the other side of the door, sweeping aside a makeshift curtain to peer at Lance outside his window. 

“Um, Lance? From the Garrison?” he answered, shuffling to the window to look back at Keith, only for Keith to move to the door. “I uh… Saw you in town and followed you back here,” he said honestly, rather than try and lie his way around the truth. 

There was silence on the other side of the door. “...From the Garrison?”

Well this was disappointing. “Do you seriously not remember me? We were in the same class together! We were RIVALS! Lance and Keith, neck and neck!”

Finally, the door cracked open just a little bit. “Lance the cargo pilot?” Keith said, his voice thin with the strain of recollection. “What are you talking about, why did you follow me?”

Lance took the cracked door as an invitation, pushing it open the rest of the way to look Keith in the eye. “I followed you here because I was worried. You look like hell, dude, is this where you’re living?”

Keith bit his lips, scent going ripe from anxiety as his body language withdrew in on itself. “So what?” he bit back defensively. “It’s my property, they can’t kick me out of here.”

Lance looked around the vast desertscape that was Keith’s property. “Kick you out of WHAT? I can see inside your entire shack from here and there isn’t even room for a toilet!”

“There’s a well and there’s an outhouse,” Keith defended, storming inside to let Lance follow. “Who are you to judge anything?!”

“I’m sorry, I was just worried!” Lance bit back, annoyance swelling up in the way it always did when he and Keith started bickering like this. It was almost like being back in school together. “I see a person living alone in the desert with no provisions and I worry if they’re okay, I can’t help it!”

“Well I’m fine! I chose to be out here, and I didn’t ask for anyone’s help! Would you just get out of here already?”

“FINE, maybe I will!” Lance snapped, indeed storming out and letting Keith slam the door behind him. 

Well. That had been stupid. Having no choice, Lance got back on his rental bike and drove back home to his dorm in the Garrison.

In the end, Lance couldn’t help but go back. Look, whatever his complex feelings for Keith may actually be, every one of his instincts was screaming at him that he couldn’t leave an omega all alone with no provisions in the damned DESERT.

But he needed a plan. Keith had kicked him out last time, and rightly so considering Lance had been there for essentially no reason. He needed an excuse, and the first one that came to mind was the one he acted on.

Food. Keith had barely any food in that place, right? Well if Lance just like… brought over some non-perishable shit like ramen noodles and potato chips and whatnot, there was no way Keith could turn him away. He hoped.

Plus he had a secret weapon for not getting turned away at the door. That secret weapon? He brought a fresh hot pizza with him.

When Keith answered the door this time he was less trepidatious and more irritated. At least, until he smelled Lance’s pizza. Hard not to let him inside once he’d smelled it.

“What are you here for, Lance?” Keith said, once Lance was inside and both of them were eating. “Why did you come back here? What do you want from me?”

Lance shook his head, taking another bite of the plain pepperoni pizza he’d ordered out of lack of knowledge of Keith’s preferences. “What could I possibly want from you, dude? You’re too scraggly to wanna bang, before you even THINK to go there.”

Keith scoffed around his own mouthful of pizza. “Not like I have anything else to offer. But an alpha I barely know doesn’t just show up at my house with a bag of groceries for no reason, Lance.”

“Well, why can’t I be doing just that?” Lance asked, looking around the dilapidated shack and thinking about everything there that needed to be done. It was so dirty, maybe he could just clean up a little while he was here… “I found you in a shack eating canned beans. I could have called social services -” Keith tensed at the very words. “- But instead I decided a better way to handle it was to just… try and take care of you a little myself. Just to help. Tiny bits. Where I can.”

“Because I’m an omega?”

“Partly,” Lance shrugged. “But mostly no, I’d probably do this for anyone I found like this. You live like a hobo, dude. It’s kind of terrible.”

Keith still looked hesitant, anxious about Lance’s presence in his small nest of a living space. “Even when nothing’s in it for you?”

Lance nodded. “What’s in it for me is not having the guilt weigh on me that I just left you here like this. I’ll take that any day.”

This at least, seemed like an answer Keith could accept.

—

Keith had lost the most important person in his entire life, and his world had shattered. He’d lost everything with Kerberos.

He’d lost Shiro, he’d lost Matt. He’d lost Adam, who was so deep into his own grief he couldn’t bear to take care of Keith’s pain as well. He’d lost his home in the Garrison, when Iverson had made an insulting comment about Shiro in reference to the disappearance and Keith had lost his crap and took a swing at him for it.

Keith had lost everything, and so had no choice but to go back to the only other home he’d ever known. He went back to the shack leftover on his father’s property, the only thing that hadn’t been lost in the fire.

And so he’d done the only thing he could think to do, with no direction and no family and no hope. He followed the voice in his head telling him there was something in the desert he needed to find. He didn’t know what, and he didn’t know where, but something very big and very ancient was calling to him, and his shack was closer to that feeling than anywhere else he’d ever been.

He didn’t have a pack anymore, a true lone wolf. But he hadn’t chosen to be this way, it had just fallen upon him through continued loss. And now he had only one chance to find out where he belonged, and it was calling to him from somewhere in the mountains of this very desert.

And just when he found the legend of the Blue Lion, just when he thought he might be onto something… that’s when Lance McClain waltzed into his life.

It’s hard to say what even made Keith open the door to let him in. Curiosity, for one. But probably more than even that was the loneliness, the fact that he hadn’t had much of any human interaction in the long months since he’d left the Garrison, and the next time Lance came over with food… it was obvious he was just offering companionship in Keith’s hard time. And companionship was the one thing Keith actually needed.

Humans were built as social animals, after all, and Keith had been alone for so long now. A little company was nice, even if the guy was kind of a freak.

And yeah, he remembered Lance from school now. He had never liked Keith in the first place was the weird part, had always been picking fights and acting like they had some kind of rivalry Keith actually cared about. Keith had used to think of him as an alpha just trying to show Keith his place as an omega or whatever, but it seemed now like it had had nothing to do with his being omega and everything to do with Lance’s own unrelated inferiority complex and need to prove himself. Prove himself to anyone,  _ including  _ Keith.

After the third time Lance came over with food, that’s what Keith decided it was. Lance was unconsciously using taking care of Keith as a measure to prove his worth as an alpha, which sounded gross but Keith was actually oddly comfortable with. It wasn’t really so bad, was it? Having someone to talk, to for an hour or two while Lance cleaned up his house and stocked his “pantry” with food. 

Having something to break up the monotony of his days, all dominated by searching the desert for whatever was calling him or trying to make sense of the cave drawings, and giving him something to hold onto his sanity with those tiny little doses of normalcy. Yeah, he could safely say he liked having Lance come over.

It had been hard to let Lance into his space like this, and even harder to let him start doing these little things like cleaning and bringing food for him, but once he’d let it happen it was really nice not having to do every little thing by himself. Keith hadn’t honestly had the mental energy to maintain all of that, not when he was so preoccupied with just the everyday task of surviving and trying to answer that strange unseeable calling. Something little like sweeping the shack just seemed unimportant in the light of bigger problems.

Having someone to help ease the burden of everyday living was a huge relief, once he let it happen.

“Oh,” Lance realized, looking out the window as he was bagging up the trash they’d accumulated while they’d talked today. “It started raining.”

Keith looked out the window too, noticing for the first time the heavy clouds and light rain just beginning to fall from them. A bolt of lighting shot silently between two clouds, and Keith offered, “It looks like a storm is coming. Do you think it’s safe for you to drive home in?”

“I mean,” Lance shrugged. “It better be, what else am I gonna do?”

“Well, you could stay here for a while and ride it out.”

Lance looked at Keith, surprised. “Really? You’d let me stay?”

Keith gave a slight smile. “You’ve been coming over for like, a month, Lance. There’s just no reason to invite you to stay here when I don’t have anything to  _ do _ .”

Lance looked around the living room half of his shack, eyes landing on the giant stack of machines Keith had been using to try and get readings off the desert mountains. “You got a laptop? Because I’ve got a netflix account and a WiFi hotspot on my phone if you don’t have internet.”

Keith did not have internet, but stealing it off the Data on Lance’s phone turned out to work just fine. 

They both crammed onto Keith’s little futon - the couch he used for living and sleeping, so small that when they both sat on it together Keith’s senses were filled with Lance’s vanilla coffee bean scent as he started up the movie.

He had picked Predator, which halfway through had sparked a question from Lance. “What do you think aliens are like? Like, the little green men who bring peace, or more like Predator?”

Keith appreciated that he’d skipped over the question of their existence and went straight to intent. A man after his own heart. Er - so to speak. “I think they probably want to mind their own business,” Keith answered. “But if they’re anything like humans are, space is probably filled with as much war and colonialism as anywhere on Earth is.”

Lance frowned at him, his scent twisting up with a flare of defiance. “I dunno, that seems awfully pessimistic, doesn't it?” He defended, turning away from the screen to look Keith in the eye. “I’d like to think both Earth and space are full of people who want to do good in the universe, and maybe they just wanna help us and bring peace the way we try to make peace with each other. No war lasts forever, man, peace always wins in the end.”

His optimism was, Keith decided, kind of cute, if completely naive. Keith might have argued back, might have said but new wars start every time one ends, but. He’d rather not burst Lance’s bubble.

They tried to go back to the movie, but the rain was heavy now and Lance soon got distracted.

“Is that a leak in the roof?” He asked, eyeing the corner where Keith’s few dishes were stacked on a counter made of cinderblocks. 

Keith glanced at it. “One of them,” he confirmed, standing up because he knew he had to move a few things he didn’t want to get water damaged. “It doesn’t rain very often, so I forgot it would do this.”

Lance paused the movie, helping him set up his few bowls, cooking pot and cups to collect the water that leaked through the roof. They went back to finish the movie, and by the time they had finished that and gotten through half of Alien the rain had slowed down enough for Lance to be able to take his bike home.

They finished the second movie before he left, of course.

—

Lance was a man on a mission.

That leaky roof had been an inspiration to him, a call to action he couldn’t ignore. He had experience in fixing things like this from working on his family’s farm; he may have been the youngest child but not exempt from work and he had been dragged along to ‘help’ on everything that went wrong around the house in order for him to learn how to fix this stuff himself the next time it came up.

And their barn had been about a hundred years old and made of shit, and just fixing a leaky roof? Was something Lance had done about a hundred times before by now. Okay, twice. Either way, it was something he had absolute confidence in.

So the next time he went over to Keith’s little shack, he brought with him roofing tiles and nails. He had seen Keith’s toolbox - lol toolbox - and already knew the other boy had a hammer, so the next step was just getting over there and convincing Keith to let him.

Keith only let him by agreeing to help too, and seemed awfully bitter about all the money Lance kept spending on him. Lance just laughed and reassured him he had nothing better to spend it on while he was living in the Garrison dorms like he was, just explained that he was happier spending time and money on Keith and his living situation than saving up for something more frivolous like the newest PlayStation.

“You really don’t have to do any of this,” Keith kept trying to say, even as they were both on the roof holding nails and roof tiles while Lance hammered away.

It was hot as hell, and both of them were flushed red and sweating from the heat and exertion. 

“I don’t mind,” Lance said for probably the hundredth time with a hard laugh. Wondered if it was rude to take off his sweaty shirt, remembered Keith was an omega and decided it wasn't appropriate. He’d wear something lighter next time he came over, like a tank top or something. “I like feeling useful, at the Garrison I’d just be stuck studying all the time and I need to move my body more.”

Keith hummed. “That I can definitely relate to. Those gym classes were a joke, no one likes being forced into team sports and everyone knows it.”

Lance laughed again, liking how easy Keith was to talk to once they’d both opened up a little. 

“So, how do you know how to do this stuff, anyway?” Keith asked, passing Lance another roof tile because he only had one hammer and couldn’t help any other way. “I can’t believe you know how to fix a roof off the top of your head.”

“Well oddly enough that is exactly the case,” Lance confirmed, wiping the sweat from his brow and accepting the tile to slide it in place next to the last one. “To spite my stunning good looks I’m no city boy, I grew up on a farm and had to fix all kinds of things like this.”

Keith blinked at him. “Really?”

“Sure. I have a huge family so we have a big house with a big barn and lots of things eager to break down in both. Before I left for the Garrison, I helped my brother Luis rebuild the entire basement after the flooding made mold grow in the walls.”

Keith whistled, and Lance felt a swell of pride at the omega’s impressed expression. “That sounds really cool. I’ve barely ever had one brother before, it must be nice having so many that you can do things like that with someone.”

Barley had one brother? What the hell did that mean? “Do you have like… a half brother? Or a step brother or something?”

Keith blinked, surprised, and then chuckled to himself as he shook his head. “More like adopted brother.” He hesitated, licking his lips and breaking eye contact. “After my Dad died, it was Shiro who was the only person who cared for me. He took me in, and practically raised me for a few years there.”

It was Lance’s turn to stare, connecting dots rapidly as he stuttered out, “Wait, Shiro? As in, Takashi Shirogane Shiro? THE Shiro?! He was your brother?!”

Keith winced, nodding. “Yeah. It’s been… hard. Since I lost him.”

Lance’s jaw dropped, only barely preventing the hammer in his hands from doing the same and toppling off the roof. Oh god, that explained so much. 

The Kerberos mission had been about two weeks before Keith had been expelled. Lance had never dared to think there might be some kind of correlation between the two events, but it was so obvious now. Keith had acted out because he had had only one family member in the world and had just lost them. He’d been in mourning, and instead of getting counseling he’d gotten expelled for it. 

“Dude,” Lance said, voice heavy with emotion. “ _ Dude _ .”

Keith chuckled, one long laugh that started out of his nose. “Thanks, Lance,” he said with an honest smile. “Your sympathy means a lot to me.”

There was a swell of feeling inside of Lance with this revelation, an urge he could only call protectiveness. Keith had no family and no home, and was out in this desert because he had no other choice… and Lance would suddenly do anything to help him. 

Lance couldn’t be the family Keith had lost by himself, but. He could be a start.

—

Lance had been coming over to Keith’s shack more than ever, and he was doing way more than just bringing food now. Keith was happy about it mostly, but.. he was starting to go way overboard, and Keith’s feelings about it were… complex.

The thunderstorm had also shorted out the wiring in one of his walls, thanks to the leak thereabouts. When Lance had found out about it he’d set to work right away, and Keith had had the pleasure of watching Lance tear apart his drywall to look for the short.

Lance… if he was trying to prove himself capable as an alpha, he was certainly pulling it off. Bringing food and spending time with Keith could all be read as just friendly behaviors, but when an alpha started bringing over carpentry supplies and started hammering away at the roof of your home, a lonely omega was bound to notice.

Lance was already charming and sweet, and now he was literally helping to build Keith a home. The son of a bitch was already handsome and then BAM he takes off his shirt and starts prying your walls apart in a sweat-stained tank top like some kind of… Cuban love god. Keith didn’t even know. He was horny, okay?

It didn’t even seem like Lance knew what he was doing, and he was still charming and perfect. He was poking an exposed wire right now, and before Keith could even say “Have you turned off the power yet?” he was already getting a light electric shock. 

“Yup,” Lance lied, drawing his hand back and shaking it out like he could flick the pain away with the motion. “Yup, yes, I know exactly what I’m doing.”

Keith smiled. He couldn’t help it, Lance was adorable whether he knew what he was actually doing or not. “Come here,” Keith said, taking Lance’s hand. “Let’s get you outside to the well and rinse this off in cool water.”

Lance had the lightest blush across his face, though if it was from the embarrassment or from Keith still holding his hand, Keith could never begin to guess. 

It kept going past that day, too. The electric problem aside there was always something to fix in Keith’s shack, and handsome sir Lance was always eager to step up with whatever needed fixing. The drywall, the electric, the roof, the ceiling. He even brought over more gas for Keith’s electric generator, and a damned camp shower so Keith could have hot water instead of just throwing buckets from the well over his head to get clean.

Keith wanted to stop him, wanted to say he wasn’t living here permanently and Lance didn’t need to make it a home for him when Keith was only staying here while he looked for something in the desert. But… he couldn't bring himself to actually object.

It was just too nice having someone care about him. Keith hadn’t had that for a long time, and he didn’t wanna give up any part of it. What if he told Lance he wasn’t going to live here forever so he didn’t need to make it somewhere he could live, and Lance couldn’t think of any more excuses to come over and left Keith alone again?

Instead of risking it, Keith found himself leaning into it. Playing house, so to speak. When he knew Lance was coming over, Keith would end up making something to eat for them, even if all he could manage was spaghetti boiled over the single burner of Keith’s butane stove. 

He’d make sure there was always enough water for Lance to drink while he was working, and when he realized he was doing that he felt ridiculous like he might as well be making him lemonade. 

It wasn’t like he didn’t know how to do this stuff by himself, after all, it was just… Lance always looked so happy while he was working. Fulfilled. And Keith  _ really _ enjoyed watching him work.

This was all probably why he let himself get so comfortable, he forgot about one thing. 

Keith forgot that he couldn’t afford heat suppressants anymore. Forgot until the very last minute, when he realized he’d spent an entire afternoon flushed hot and horny and staring at Lance for pretty much every second of the drywall repair instead of actually making himself useful and like, helping for it.

His heat was starting soon. Very soon.

—

“You can’t come over next week,” was the last thing Keith had said to Lance when they hung out last. “It’s very important you not come over. Do you understand what I’m saying here, Lance?”

Lance hadn’t at the time, though. It took a good two days of sulking before he realized it was because Keith was going into his heat, and then after that Keith in heat was about ALL he could think about.

He already knew Keith smelled like orange-ginger heaven, and he couldn’t imagine what it would be like ramped up to a hundred when he was all sweaty and horny and in full heat. He already knew Keith was beautiful, but now he was imagining him all naked and flushed and with his hands all over himself and it was a miracle Lance got literally anything done in class that week.

“What’s been up with you lately?” Hunk asked, when Lance was finally home the entire day for three days in a row without running off to the desert to visit Keith. “You’ve been disappearing after class every day and when you come home you’re all exhausted. Do you have some kind of secret girlfriend you’re not telling me about?”

Lance laughed, thinking of the hard labor he’d been doing setting up Keith’s shack lately. “Wow, is that what it looks like?”

“You’ve been all swooney lately,” Hunk confirmed, leering accusingly at Lance. “Even when you’re home you look like you’re thinking of something else, and you keep getting this dopey grin on your face. It’s gotta be an omega.”

“Ah.” And the truth was, it WAS an omega. Which made Lance realize, if he was all swooney and thinking of somewhere else when he’d been so preoccupied with Keith, he was probably… “Shit, I think you’re right. I’m totally in love with Keith.”

Hunk stepped back in surprise. “Keith? You don’t mean Keith Kogane do you? How did you even FIND him?!”

It was Lance’s turn to stumble back in shock. “How did you know that’s the Keith I meant?! This school has like five thousand students, I could have meant anyone! There’s more than one Keith you know!”

“Not more than one you’re totally obsessed with,” Hunk said, with that look on his face like he knew everything. “It’s okay, dude, you literally already admitted I was right about everything.”

“I didn’t know,” Lance defended, a little panicky. “I thought I just liked him as a friend, I swear!”

Hunk patted him on the shoulder. “I understand, buddy. Love is hard.”

That was an understatement and a half. Now that he knew he had real unignorable FEELINGS for the other boy, knowing he was in heat was just about unbearable.

When was the last time Keith even went through a heat? Would he be okay? Had Lance brought over enough food, would he be able to get access to his water from the well okay? He knew it wasn’t safe to go over there, knew that he wouldn't have the self control to resist Keith’s allure even if he did go with pure intentions. All he could do was hold back and hope for the best.

It wasn’t until late that night that his phone finally chirped. He had given Keith his number weeks ago, knowing Keith had a phone that still had prepaid minutes on it like the old days. Keith had never seen fit to send any messages, until tonight.

“ _ come over _ ” was all it said, with no elaboration of any kind. Lance glanced at the clock on his phone. It was eleven at night.

“ _ I can’t, _ ” Lance texted back, sucking in a deep breath. “ _ You told me not to. _ ”

A few long minutes, for which Lance barely breathed. “ _ Useless _ ,” Keith shot back. “ _ You don’t care about consent when it comes to fixing my house, but when I actually need you you disappear.” _

Lance bit his lip, heart pounding in his chest.“ _ You told me not to, _ ” Lance texted again, because it was his only choice. “ _ Stay hydrated, I’ll see you next week. _ ”

He didn’t get a response back, but he hadn’t expected to at that point. So he just waited and hoped for the best, because there was nothing else he could do.

He just hoped Keith didn’t stay mad at him for the rejection.

—

Keith hadn’t gone through a heat in years, and this one had hit him hard. 

He was humiliated he’d tried to text Lance to come over, even more ashamed it was his alpha friend who’d been on his mind while he pleasured himself the entire heat. And because he’d texted him, Lance probably even knew that fact.

He almost didn’t wanna face him when Lance came over again. But it’s not like he could turn the other boy away, especially when he still had to apologize for the last thing he’d said.

So the next week when his heat was over and Lance’s favorite rental bike pulled in, Keith knew what he had to do. For once.

“I’m sorry,” they both said at the same time as the door opened. Then they blinked at each other, and at once both laughed.

“No, but seriously I actually need to thank you,” Keith said shyly, only realizing he was tucking a lock of hair behind his ear once he’d already done it. “I um. Thought I meant it at the time, but you knew I didn’t really want my first time to be some booty call in the middle of my heat, and I needed to say.. yeah. You did the right thing by staying home, and that was actually really cool of you.”

“Oh thank god,” Lance breathed out with a laugh, scratching the back of his neck. “I was worried you really meant it, and I had just seriously turned you down and pissed you off.” They both blushed, once again avoiding eye contact. “A-anyway, I brought food! Since I know you probably used up your whole stock for the heat. I even brought water, just in case.”

Keith melted a little, smiling at Lance. “Thanks, Lance. Come on inside.”

He really could use the food. Heats consumed a lot of energy, and he had ravaged through his entire supplies in efforts not to give into the heat, trying to avoid filling one hole inside him by filling a different one instead. It had worked... to a point.

Even having Lance around now when his heat had just ended was almost too much, his golden skin glowing in the sunlight through Keith’s window made his heart all a flutter and his knees just a little weak. God, Keith was pathetic.

“A-anyway,” Keith said once they were inside, pulling up something on the one source of internet he had in the shack - his seldom remembered cell phone. “So, I was on Craig’s List earlier and I found a fold-out couch for like fifteen dollars.” He fidgeted, even though there was nothing left to be nervous about. “Did you maybe wanna help me pick it up?”

Lance beamed like Keith had given him a puppy and not just asked him for a favor. “I’d love to help you sleep on a real human bed, dude!”

They went to go pick up the couch, which would fit on the back of Keith’s hover bike but only if he had someone to help him bungee-cord the thing up there with him. They got it all the way back to his desert without incident, though Keith noted on the way back Lance didn’t have enough room not to scoot right up close to Keith on the bike, his arms wrapped around Keith’s waist as they drove. A feeling, Keith decided, he could get used to.

They got Keith’s old shitty couch out and even managed to haul the new one inside and clear the makeshift cinderblock table out of the way to fold it out and see how comfortable it really was. 

“Oh shit, it’s already got sheets folded in!” Lance announced with delight. “And a blanket!” He held up the fluffy fleecey type blanket, cuddling it to his face and cooing “Oohhhhh my god Keith it’s so SOFT you have to feel this!”

Keith was already laying down in the bed. “You have to feel THIS! I didn’t actually think the bed would be more comfortable than the couch part but it totally is.”

They both laughed, and Lance hopped onto the bed next to Keith, settling in with a sigh and the complaint that Keith had the only pillow in the whole shack.

They ended up settling that complaint pretty easily later on as the day wore into night, and Lance still hadn't gone home yet. Lance leaned against the pillow, and Keith leaned against Lance’s chest. It was a good system. 

So good a system, in fact, they fell asleep. Lance stayed with him the whole night, and had to sneak back to the dorms the next morning.

—

Lance was getting worried. He’d fallen for Keith pretty hard, but that wasn’t the problem that was on his mind. The problem was that the way things were now, they couldn’t have a future together.

Lance was still in the Garrison, and miraculously was even still doing well in his classes even with all this distraction. Lance’s dreams all involved space, and now that Keith had been expelled from the Garrison there was no way he could ever do the same. 

Maybe there was a chance they could get married anyway, but they’d be spending so much time apart… Lance was gonna be a military man, going to be gone for months to years at a time on missions, it was hard to imagine making a relationship work like that now that he was really faced with someone he wanted to  _ try _ for.

He couldn’t be there for keith when Keith needed him. He’d already gotten a taste of that with Keith’s heat, and there would be so many more Lance wouldn’t be able to help with… When he graduated there were so many things he wouldn’t be able to do anymore. Wouldn’t be able to bring food or supplies to Keith, wouldn’t even be able to talk to him… Would Keith really be okay without Lance around? He had been so haggard and run dry by himself…

“Maybe we could get you chickens,” Lance found himself saying, practically out of the blue. “Turn this place into a sustainable farm, set you up with fresh eggs and occasional chicken meat.”

“No,” was Keith’s answer, to his surprise. “I’m not keeping chickens, Lance.”

“It’d be easy,” Lance assured him, wondering what Keith’s objection could be. “They’re super easy to take care of, you basically just need a coop and we can rig up one of those in like a day. We keep a ton of chickens at the farm back home, I can show you how to do everything.”

“No, Lance,” Keith said again, oddly determined about this. “I’m not keeping anything here that needs to be taken care of. No animals, no pets of any kind.”

Lance was already halfway to panic. Even if he didn’t graduate for months yet, the idea of leaving Keith was stressing him out so much. He was going to be leaving for space, leaving the same way Shiro had left, and what IF he didn’t come back? There was nothing he could do to stay by his side, and now he couldn’t even buy the guy he liked a stupid dog to keep him company? 

“Why not?” Lance asked, voice thin and a little desperate.

“Because,” Keith said, strained. “Because I can’t have anything here that can’t be abandoned once I find what I’m looking for. I can’t keep chickens here, Lance, because I don’t plan on living here for the rest of my life. Just… Just until I figure something out.”

Lance hadn’t even considered that, and a sick feeling dropped down into the pit of his stomach. Of course. Of course Keith had his own life and his own goals, of course Keith was planning on leaving… 

He just barely dared to ask, “What are you looking for?”

Keith hesitated, looking Lance in the eye like he was trying to decide if he fully trusted him or not. “That’s kind of the thing,” he admitted, breaking eye contact. “I’m not sure what I’m looking for at all. I’ve just had this feeling, this feeling like I’m supposed to be out here, like…” He looked out into the desert out his window. “Like something out there is calling for me.”

He finally looked back at Lance. “I’ve been out here doing research on local legends, trying to find some hint as to what’s supposed to be out here. So far all I’ve found is rumors of a blue lion, but I’m sure that… whatever is out here I’m sure it’s my destiny.”

It sounded like nonsense. It sounded like an irrational fairytale that shouldn’t be paid attention to. It also sounded deeply, intensely familiar to Lance.

There had been something calling him here, too. Lance had just assumed whatever was drawing him here had been Keith though, and had been able to ignore the feeling that he was still missing something assuming that it’s because Keith hadn’t been safe yet and Lance hadn’t like, done his job. 

But the way he’d just phrased it, like something further out in the desert was still calling… Looking out into the plains towards the mountain cliffs, Lance could feel it, too.

He had to laugh, feeling strangely relieved to know someone else was feeling it, too. Keith tensed up and Lance realized what it must look like, and he had to jump to explain, “No, I’m not laughing because it’s silly, I’m laughing because I feel it, too! It’s half the reason I followed you out here in the first place, I just…” 

They both looked out the window, towards the exact same direction as the other without making any kind of eye contact beforehand. “...Felt like there was something important out here,” Keith finished for him.

“At first I just thought it was you,” Lance admitted.

Keith blushed, looking back at Lance again. “For a second after you showed up, I wondered if it wasn’t you, too.”

—

After that, things changed. Keith had someone with him to search the desert ruins, looking for signs of some kind of blue lion or anything else that seemed like it might be calling two separate people towards it. 

Hunk got suspicious, and caught him sneaking out to visit Keith one night, which is how they’d found Pidge on the roof the exact same time an alien ship crashed into the desert like a meteorite from the heavens. Which is how they’d seen Keith sneaking in, which is how they’d followed him, which is how they’d found Shiro, which is why everyone was back in Keith’s tiny little shack to find the link between the Voltron Shiro was looking for and the Blue Lion Keith and Lance had been trying to find.

Everything went whirlwind fast after that, from finding the giant robot lion to shooting off into space with Lance at her helm, to finding the castle to almost blowing the castle up in a Galra attack to finally, FINALLY settling in.

“So,” Lance had said cheerfully, as he laid out the fluffy fleece blanket that was the only possession they’d managed to bring from Earth not already on their backs onto the bed. 

One bed. He and Keith had the option of getting separate rooms on the spaceship, but after everything they’d been through before hand had opted to skip over that and go straight to sharing one bedroom, and with it, one single bed.

He turned to Keith when it was laid out, beaming at his new boyfriend with all the cheer he could radiate. “Now that we’re all settled in, think we can get those chickens?”

Keith laughed, but. A few months later they had a cow, and it was Lance who was laughing then.

\---


End file.
